Prophesy: Yar’Adua’s Men Tackle Olabayo

The founder of The Evangelical Church of Yaweh, Maryland, Lagos State, Primate Theophilus Olabayo, has come under verbal assaults from allies of President Umaru Yar’Adua for prophesying that the president might not witness the 2011 elections.

Acting under a coalition, the National Support for Yar’Adua/Jonathan Presidency (NSYJP), the group accused Olabayo of making reckless utterances capable of causing chaos in the country.

Olabayo had expressed concern through a newspaper interview on the activities of the Nigerian leader and warned them of dire consequences of their actions.

Responding to one of the questions, Olabayo said, “Well, this is a very difficult question for me. But if we should face the reality of our situation, God said to me that the seat of the president has been declared vacant…”

In their reaction to what they termed a doom-laden prophecy of Primate Olabayo, the president’s men frowned at the purported emphatic way he prophesied concerning Yar’Adua, in respect of the next election.

In a release sent through e-mail and signed by the NSYJP Secretary-General, Dr. Kingsley Adekunle Obolo, they alleged that the prophecy was designed to heat up the polity and discourage the president from seeking a re-election in 2011.

“The implication of the prediction is to heat up the polity, cause fear and anxiety among the populace, as well as distract the president from performing his constitutional obligations for which he was elected into office, and equally dissuade him from contesting the 2011 elections,” they stated.

The president’s supporters said it was not in their character to take issues with men of God, but wondered why Olabayo was playing God by intoning finality in his prophecy.